Improvement in draining-machines



2 Sheets-Sheet 1. COLE'& WALL.

' Mole-Plow.

Patented Nov. 11, 1856.

2 Sheets Sheet 2.

- COLE & WALL.

Mole-Plow.

Patented Nov. 11, 1856.

Q. b I m e .a cross-section of the hindmost or UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JOHN coLE ANDA. LITTLE 0.

WALL, OF DE WITT, ILLINOIS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 16,046, dated November 11, 1856.

To all whom "it may concern.-

Be it known that we, JOHN COLE and A. LITTLE O. -WALL, both of De Witt, in the county of De Witt and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Draining-Machines, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description, reference beinghad totheaccompanyingdrawings, which make part of this specification, and in which- Figure 1 represents a plan of our said machine. Fig. 2 represents a vertical longitudinal section of the same, taken at the line 00 m of Fig. 1; also, a section of ground in process of being drained by this machine. Fig. 3 represents a plan of the moles detached from the machine with a portion of the lower end of the leg or standard and colter. Fig. 4 represents auxiliary mole at the line 0 0 of Fig.3; and Fig. 5 represents a vertical section of a piece of ground, showing a cross-section of afinished drain.

The draining'plow was invented and extensively used in Europe before the beginning of the present century, and it continues to be regarded as an indispensable implement of British husbandry.- Among the British inventors who improved this implement, Scott, Lambert,

Arbuthnot, Makie, McDoryal, Green, Pearson,

and Watts may be mentioned. An examination of the descriptions of these plows, which are to be found in various printed publications, will show to a great extent the history and present state of machinery for making subsoil drains by the labor of horses and without materially breaking the surface of the ground. These machines are all constructed and all operate upon one common principle, and produce a channel or hole in the subsoil at a distance below and parallel to the surface of the ground, by forcing through the subsoil, point foremost, a conical or pyramidal iron or steel wedge, which makes its way by wedging out and thereby compressing the earth laterally. This compression is notonly useful in forming the drain, but also gives to the roof and sides thereof increased strength and permanence, for if not thus compressed they would speedily crumble down and the drain be obliterated. The passage thus made by this wedge having some resemblance to the hole made by the little quadruped called a mole, this pyramidal, conical,

or wedge-shaped foot or shoe of the plow is termed a mole, and this class of implements are denominated mole-plows! The moles of different plows differ somewhat in form and in the position in which they are carried, whence result corresponding difierences in the operations and effects of the several mole-plows.

The mole-plow usually consists of a beam with handles to guide the implement, a clevis to draw by, a colter projecting downward from the beam to cut the sod, a leg or stand projecting below the beam and following the colter, to which is attached at the lower end, like a foot, the conical or pyramidal wedge or mole,

the apex of the mole pointing toward the forward end of the plow, and its under sideeither parallel to the surface of level ground or slightly inclining upward from the point toward the heel, in order that all of the divergence of the surface of the mole, from the line in which it is carried, may be on its right, left, and upper sides, which causes it to form the drain by compressing the earth above and on either side,

leaving the bottom either not compressed at all or but slightly so, that the water may ooze through it freely into the drain from the adjacent soil, leaving the roof and sides tight, strong, and undisturbed for the support of the superincumbent earth.

In some mole-plows the heel of the foot is attached to the leg. This is found to be objectionable because the lower part of the leg is apt to break the roof of the drain where it passes through the same, so as to destroy the archv and allow the earth to crumble down hehind the mole and interrupt the drain. T0 obviate this difficulty the leg has been connected to the top of the mole at a point about one-third of the distance from the heel to the point. By this arrangement the leg is made to out its way through the roof and the soil above before the mole has passed, and while the sides and roof are but partially formed, leaving the enlarged heel of the mole to follow, and still further compressing the sides and roof to close the slit and cracks in the roof by the passage of the leg, thus preventing both any tendency of the roof to crumble, and at the same time excluding from the drain the surface water andmud, which would run in if the slit made by the passage of the leg were left open.

Instead of attaching the leg to the mole in front of the heel for the purpose of closingthe slit in the roof, the same result has been obtained by attaching a tail-piece, so called, to the heel and causing it to projectbackward and slightly upward, so that in effect the tailpiece is a continuation of the top of the mole backward without continuing back the sides.

To diminish the friction of the mole a conical cavity has been made in'the sole extending from the point to the heel, its apex being toward the point of the 'mole and leaving only a margin-say of half an inch in width-which is flat and horizontal and extending from the point to the heel, so that every part of the sole. except the margin inclines upward as it extends backward. Both this tail-piece and the concave bottom of the mole are the subject of a patent granted to Abraham and Charles Marquess and Charles Emerson, on the 19th day of February, 1836.

None of the mole-plows heretofore made, so far as are=known, are well adapted to the drainage of the generality of the wet lands in the Western prairies of the United States, while an efficient draining-machine for those lands has becomea great desideratum,which it is the object of our invention to supply. The pulverulent and porous nature of the soils in these prairies requires that the roof and sides of the mole-drain should be much more compressed and the drain be made much larger than is required for other lands. This, it is obvious, can be done by making the mole more obtuse to enlarge its heel; but this it was found made it difficult to pass stones and other like ohstacles, as the pressure of its sides against them was too much forward and not enough laterally. To avoid this difficulty the mole was lengthened without increasing the angle of divergence of its sides; but here another difficulty occurred. The mole was found to be too long to turn out ofits direct path to go round impenetrable obstacles or to run out of the ground. All these difficulties we avoid or overcome by making the mole in sections flexibly connected. To prevent still more effectually the danger of water percolating through the roof and sides of the drain in quantities sufficient to wash them down we attach to the under side of the mole a knife of, say, two inches or more in width, which cuts a deep and narrow groove in the bottom of the drain, but does not compress the sides thereof. This groove insures a sufficiently free entrance to the water from the surrounding soil.

In Western prairieland it is found, especially where the land has a descent, that the bottom of the drain, if left uncompressed, washes away rapidly from one place and is deposited in others. Thus the drain is soon obstructed.

We are enabled to compress the bottom as well as the top and sides of our drain, as the 'stand.

knife-groove in the bottom affords a free on trance to the water. is made very durable in soils in which, if made without bottom compression, would not Agaiii, in making drains at a considerable distance beneath the surface of the ground, which in' the deep soil of the prairies is indispensable, we found that the point of the mole must be supported by the colter, While its heel is sustained by the leg, in order to render the machine sufficiently strong to perform its work efficiently; but when the colter is thus arranged to brace the point of the mole we have discovered that it does not occupy the proper position to divide the sward m at the surface, and to remedy this defect we combine with the brace-colter, having its outting-edge inclining backward and downward, a rotating colter arranged in front, which only penetrates to a depth sufficient to cut the grass and weeds upon the surface and to divide the sward.

Theaccompanying drawings represent a drainingmachine embracing our improvements, in which A is a strong horizontal beam and 13 O are trucks to carry the same. The truck-wheels a are of small diameter to render the machine compact, but have a very wide tread'to prevent them from breaking through soft sward. The leg or standard D and the colter E pass through and are secured in the beam by bolts and straps in the usual manner. The rotating colter F is placed in front of and on a line with the fixed or brace colter, and its axle revolves in suitable bearings attached to the under side of the beam. The front section of the mole M is attached to the lower extremity of the colter E and leg I). This section of the mole is made fiat on the bottom, which is parallel to the beam and to the line of its own motion. Its sides and top diverge in lines curving outward from the point backward, so thatin form this mole very closely resembles one-half of a cone divided through its axis. A second mole, N, of similar form to that already described, but of about one-quarter larger diameter, and

having a fin, a, projecting down from its sole,

is connected to the front mole, M, by a link, on, jointed to its own toe or point and to the heel of the mole in front. The office of the front section, M, of the mole is to make a hole or passage through the ground, and that of the rear section, N, of the mole is to enlarge the hole made by the front'section and in addition, by means of its under pin or knife, n, to cut a narrow and deep groove in the bottom of the drain.

This machine may be drawn by horses or oxen harnessed directly to it; or it may be drawn by means of a capstan operated by animal or other power. For large and deep drains we prefer to use a capstan.

What we claim as our invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, isv 1. The combination of the brace-colterE and In this way the drain rotating colter F with the mole, substantially In testimony whereof we heve hereunto subas herein set forth. scribed our names.

2. Constructing the mole in sections flexibly JOHN COLE. connected together. A LITTLE O WALL 3.' Constructing the mole with a fin or knife I on its sole to make a deep furrow in the bot- In presence oftom of the drain to facilitate the entrance of MILTON Y. DUDD, the water from the adjacent soil. ABRAHAM CHAPIN. 

